New Day
by Dunno12345
Summary: Okay, do NOT read if you haven't finished Allegiant. This is a short story after of Tobias and Tris's reunion because I could not bear to accept the end. So here it is, a quick thing I did to ease my agony.


**To clarify:** **This is from Tobias's point of view and it takes place in the future after he has died of whatever. **

_It's open. That is the first thing I notice. The sky is not tinted dark, overcast with the threat of a possible storm, but endless. It is a slather of light that touches from horizon to horizon, wherever they might be._

The land itself is surreal. There but not there, as if it is far too perfect to exist. The brush passes over my hands and though it may not look real, it feels real and I wonder if I'm dreaming. Is Christina here? Am I under a simulation? No, no those don't exist in my world anymore.

But then, in the distance, I see something move, breaking me from my reverie. Well, not something, someone. I see it is a man, roughly my height and the closer he gets, the clearer he becomes.

I see now that he is running, his hand raised in greeting.

My instincts are to grab a weapon, but those instincts feel...far away to me now and when the man is close enough, they disappear altogether.

"Man, what took you so long?" he says, clasping my hand and pulling me into an embrace. I'm too shocked to move. It can't be. I know it can't be.

"What?" Uriah asks, looking at me with that goofy grin he always used to wear, something I have not seen in a very long time. Something that I don't realize until now how much I have missed.  
"You look like you've just seen a ghost."  
I know I must be dreaming.

"Ha-ha, Uri," a girl chides behind him, sliding her slender hand into his. "Ignore him. He loves greeting people. He likes the scare."

For a moment, I can't breathe. _Am_ I still breathing?

"Marlene?" I ask, and my voice is choked. "But...but you're.."

"Dead?" she says simply, shrugging. "Not really. Can those who have passed really say that they are gone after?"

I don't know what to say. I don't think my voice will work.

"Huh. I've never seen Four look so afraid," another man's voice. "I don't like it. Makes me all uncomfortable."

It's Will. Will, who I now see clearly in Cara, his expression, the way his eyes brighten. It's all too real and I am suddenly afraid that I will wake and shatter this moment of peace.

"Am I...Am I dreaming?" I ask, but I don't really recognize my own voice.

Marlene steps to the side and there is a huge smile on her face. "You know, I'm always nervous to tell someone when they have died, but something tells me you won't care too much."

The breath leaves me, but I feel no pain. A face surfaces in my mind, of a small girl, eyes bright and fierce, raging with a courageous fire that's heat I have lived without for so long.

I don't even need to ask before Marlene steps to the side, revealing someone in the distance, a golden halo of hair blending over the tall grass.

I don't think. All I can do is get there, get there and I can't go fast enough.

She is the same. That fire has not dulled, but seems to glow even brighter, her hair caressing her cheeks, winding about her neck. It brings me a sense of forgotten pain of how lost her image had become over time. Just a string of memories that I carried around and wore them like armor. Indestructible, its only known enemy time.

But now it comes back, her image clear as crystal in my mind. I remember her laugh, the way her eyes turned up when she smiled. I picture us on the rock, when I met her lips for the first time, binding me to her. To this girl that I have never stopped loving, who helped me to overcome my own fears by facing them with me. She is real, she is here.

And I am almost there.

I collide against her, terrified that if I move, that once I reach her, she will disappear beneath my hands, but she doesn't. She stays there, however alive she may be beneath me and it's all I can do to hold myself together.  
I barely notice that my breathing is not ragged.  
I pull her against me and she fits willingly against my chest, two pieces of the same puzzle, rusted over time, one corroded, finally placed back together.

"I missed you," she says and her eyes are wet.

I can't even move. Everything in me is on fire, like she gave me some of her own and it rages within me now, victorious and triumphant.

"Please tell me this is real," I beg, hugging her as tightly as I can to me, refusing to look away from her face.

She nods, pressing her palm to my cheek. "Like I'd let you go after this. No, I'm not leaving you again, Tobias Eaton. I love you."

"Tris..." my voice breaks on her name, an immortal treasure inside me that I have tried -and failed over many years- to lock away. "I love you so much." I say her name again and again, each whisper bringing me a sense of deep relief, cutting away a bit of the weight that I have been bearing for so long.

Finally, she raises her chin and presses one thin finger against my mouth. "Beatrice," she says and then she lifts her lips to meet mine for the first time in our new world.


End file.
